Raising Awareness Buddy Campaign

2024, Arlington, VA, USA

Students in a fifth-grade class at Jamestown Elementary learned from a Master Naturalist and parent volunteer about the issues facing the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. They realized how much they had not known previously and were inspired to create a buddy system in which students in their grade could teach younger students about the issues facing their watershed.

Fifth grade students went in prepared and had various games and resources to teach their third-grade buddies about the watershed. A week later they had the third-grade students create posters based on what they had learned. Creative awards were given, and the posters remained on the school walls for the course of the school year.

This unique project increased awareness and communicated to all how they can protect the environment in small and simple ways.

SDG: 13: Climate Action 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

Targets: 13.3, 6.3, 6.6

Retention Pond Norcom High School

2024, Portsmouth, VA, USA

Students noticed that a campus retention pond was being taken over by Phragmites Australis, which prompted them to gather community resources for assistance in developing a mitigation plan. A stormwater planner, a landscape horticulturist, director of Operations for the City of Portsmouth, school administration and a student met about how to proceed.

Students acquired supplies that would assist volunteers in helping clean up the area once the Phragmites was mowed and sprayed.

During this process, students learned how to partner with others in the community to accomplish a goal. Together, they were able to create a more sustainable city.

SDG: 11: Sustainable Cities and communities, 6: Clean water and Sanitation

Targets: 11.4, 15.5

Flood Prevention

2024, Arlington, VA, USA

5^th grade students at Oakridge decided to address a flooding problem they had in the front of their school. They recognized that there was a drain that was supposed to be helping with run off, but it was perpetually clogged with mud and other debris. This excess water killed off plants and dirt became saturated.

To combat this issue, students created a rain garden. They chose plants with help from the local parks association that would do well with excess water and took the amount of sunlight into account. Besides the drain then becoming clearer, students also noticed that people were stopping to look at and enjoy the garden.

Students loved the satisfaction that came from creating something beautiful for the school that served as a reminder to protect our watersheds.

SDG: 4: Quality Education, 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, 15: Life on Land

Targets: 15.5

Caroline Middle School North Anna River Cleanup Implementation

2024, Milford, VA, USA

Close to Caroline Middle School is a local favorite hiking location in North Anna Battlefield Park that students noticed was covered in a lot of litter.

To solve this problem, they proposed installing trash cans and signage to promote protecting the watershed. However, upon implementing they learned that although they could clean up litter, they were unable to install trash cans. Being flexible, they used the money to go towards an environmental educational experience. They facilitated students being able to go on a field trip to an army training base that gave students a high-level overview of efforts to maintain wetland ecosystems. Through these activities and discussions with the personnel, students learned that protecting our watershed isn’t always straightforward and we need all hands-on deck.

SDG: 6: Clean Water and Sanitation, 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Targets: 6.6

Bluebird Trail

2024, Ashburn, VA, USA

Farmwell 7^th graders aimed to protect wildlife by creating a “bluebird trail”. The school had 4 bluebird houses and needed one more for it to officially be a trail. The 7^th graders earned the grants for the 5^th bluebird house and predator guards/raccoon baffles for all five bluebird houses. As anticipated, all bird houses were occupied by three different bird species – tree swallows, chickadees, and eastern bluebirds – all of them native to Virginia. Students have learned the skills required to create a welcomed change in the community and are excited to have made a home for birds in the years to come.

SDGs: 13: Climate Action, 14: Life on Land, 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

Targets: 6.4, 15.3, 13.1

Save the Inner Harbour, Save Chesapeake Bay

2024, Baltimore, MD, USA

The students of Baltimore Christian Academy had an important question about the water quality of the Inner harbor water. After Analyzing the data that they collected, they found it to be polluted. To address this issue, they decided to take civic action. They wrote to Baltimore City council woman, Phylicia Porter, informing her of their findings and seeking her input on how to reduce or eliminate pollution in the inner Harbour.

Students learned to use their voice to advocate for environmental issues, which will aid them in a lifetime of protecting our watershed.

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation.

Target 12.5

Students Improve Recycling Policy at High School

2023, Lewistown, PA, USA

Students in the Environmental Science classes and Science club at Mifflin County High School worked together to change their school’s recycling policies. Students in Ecology classes began the process by conducting inventories about plastic and consumption habits in their daily lives.They voted and successfully advocated to their school administration to add recycling bins throughout the school and increase signage for proper recycling. They also led a station at a local EcoDay festival as well to communicate their policy change beyond their school.

This student-led policy change will leave a legacy of taking action to improve the watershed.

Sdg: 6: Clean water and Sanitation.

Targets 6.A, 6.3

The Impact of Styrofoam

2023, Loveland, Ohio, USA
Sign of the impacts of styrofoam
“The Impact of Styrofoam” was created by students, Olivia, Wyatt, Sophia, and Jake, at Loveland High School. The project focuses on the switch from
styrofoam lunch trays to all paper products in the school’s cafeteria as well as the process of educating the students and staff on the harmful effects of styrofoam.

Styrofoam is estimated to take over 500 years to decompose and is known to leach chemicals into the environment, while on the other hand, paper only takes 2-6 weeks to fully decompose. While the paper trays have a much better impact on the environment, their project illuminated some interesting problems when used in a cafeteria setting. For example, on days where the
cafeteria serves spaghetti, the sauce tends to seep into the material and make the meal less appealing for the student; the styrofoam does not have this behavior. The styrofoam trays,
however, are less sturdy than the paper trays. This switch, while there are pros and cons to both sides, is important for the sake of the Little Miami River Watershed.

Their biggest takeaway from doing this project was the amount of thought and consideration that goes into making decisions, such as, the kind of tray students’ bought lunches come on.

Sustainable Development Goals this project hits:

6.3: By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.

12.6: Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to
adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle.

14.1: By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.

Caring for our watersheds logo on food freezer Paper packaging replacing styrofoam

Community-Based Clean-Up Station in Polluted Parks

2023, Loveland, Ohio, USA
trash pickup station outside
Zachary and Ryan are both students at Loveland High School working to protect the Little Miami Watershed. For their project they conceptualized, planned, built, and installed 3 trash pickup stations at key locations of popular local parks with a lot of trash pollution. At these stations, members of the local community who spend time at the park will grab a container from inside as they enter, fill it with trash as they walk around the parks, and throw the bag away as they are leaving to remove this trash from the park on a regular basis. Additionally, by using repurposed coffee bags that would have otherwise been thrown out by local coffee shops as these containers, the group was able to simultaneously reduce the trash in their watershed and give these non-recyclable items another chance. Through the commitment of their school’s Green Team to maintain the project by checking in on the boxes and resupplying them with coffee bags as they are used up, even as the students move forward, the project will
continue serving their community far into the future.

The project addressed sustainable development targets 6.3 to “improve water quality by reducing pollution”, 14.1 to “prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds”, and 15.1 to “ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems” by removing trash (and the dangerous toxins/microplastics associated with it) from the park that otherwise would pose a threat to the water quality, underwater life, and terrestrial life both in the park itself and downstream. Additionally, their project involved the “participation of local communities” as stated in target 6B. Every bit of trash removed by those attending the park, according to the students, is a small but important step towards reaching these development goals, and inspiring others to take the similar steps in their own backyard.

Throughout the last 6 months, Zachary and Ryan took the opportunity to help their watershed and created a solution that is simple, easy to maintain, and most importantly, effective. By coming up with a strong plan before moving forward, receiving the necessary support and permission from their local government for the project was not an issue. They learned about protecting our environment and its importance, developing and proposing realistic solutions, and collaborating with one’s own community to help work toward a future for everyone.

trash pickup station outside with other bins around

BEE THE CHANGE

2023, LOVELAND, OHIO, USA
Beeswax wrapping on food
The Bee The Change project was run by four 9th grade students from Loveland High School, Erin, Ian, Keira, and Melia. Their idea was to give out beeswax wraps to people in their community, so that they could be used in lunches and homes instead of plastic lunch bags or cling wrap. They chose beeswax wraps because, unlike plastic, they are made of natural materials and can be used for up to a year before quickly, and completely, biodegrading.

With their budget they bought packs of beeswax wraps, paper bags, bee keychains, and printed pamphlets that they designed and instructional sheets. Then, they put together 250 kits, which were a paper bag, each containing a small beeswax wrap, a medium or large wrap, a pamphlet, and an instruction sheet.

One weekend, Ian and Melia went to downtown Loveland with a sign to hand out kits. They used bee keychains to excite younger kids and gave out almost 100 kits in total. Then their teacher sent an email to all the staff at their school. They got almost 50 requests for their kits. The next week, in their school, it was environmental week, so on “bee day” they went around the lunchroom and gave out kits. They also gave the remaining bee keychains to students wearing black and yellow. Finally, they gave out their remaining 30 or so kits after their presentation at the zoo.
Students package beeswax wrappers
The group planned to affect Sustainable development goals 3 and 6. Goal 3 intended to help clean water and sanitation, while 6 promotes human health and wellbeing, both of which their project will impact because it reduces the amount of microplastics in the watershed. More specifically, they wanted to aim for sub-goal 14.1, which will prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds by 2025.

On their pamphlets was a QR Code to an optional survey. From the survey the students were able to see that 85% of people had never used beeswax wraps, but 78% planned to use them in the future.

Their project is meant to help others be more sustainable in their daily lives. They hope that the recipients of the wraps will continue to give other sustainable products a chance, as well as share new products with others around them. They also hope their project will inspire other people to do similar projects promoting sustainability in new and different ways. Overall, their goal is to be(e) the change and help others be the change in sustainability.

Student receiving bees wax wrap